Ah to wake up in fashion capital of the world! However, my shopping would have to wait as we had two media visits scheduled. First up, Burson Marsteller, a public relations firm.
We were in for a whopping two and a half hours of presentation, so I was relieved when they brought out espresson, croissant, and my favorite that ACE juice that tastes like tang.
Despite this not being directly related to my area of study, I enjoyed most of the presentations from the company. They showed us several campaigns that they have worked on-all of which were extremely cool. A project with the company Italia Longeva titled ‘Chat Yourself’, a program which works with Facebook and AI to help people suffering from Alzheimers to remember important things, such as what they’re allergic to and loved ones names, along with functions to direct them home if they get lost. Another campaign with Ford called “Feel the View” developed technology using vibrations to help people who are blond to be able to see landscapes in front of them. They used the example of a woman experiencing the view of snowy mountain-tops.
My favorite, by far though, was the presentation on Campari. Campari is a bright red liquor, considered a bitters, usually used as a component of a mixed drink. I was so excited when they started pouring us each a small sample- it looked delicious! We all cheers, I took a gulp and-
*record scratch*
I immediately understood why it is considered a ‘bitters’. It was SO bitter! Some of my peers compared it to licking a block of wood. As much as I tried, I couldn’t finish the drink. And judging by the trashcan full of half drank cups, I wasn’t the only one.
However, the ad campaign they presented to us for the drink was awesome.
The company developed a video series called The Red Diaries. The first video series featured bartenders from around the world telling a story while making a Campari cocktail. The cinematography and production value was stunning.
The second project was a short film called “The Red” starring Zoe Saldana (most recently of Guardians of the Galaxy fame) as a famous photographers who wants to reveal the identity of a famous bar tender who goes by Red Hand. Other than the predictable hook up plot point, I enjoyed it.
Next we took a Mister Rogers-esque trolly to Rai.
Rai is the national public broadcasting company of Italy. After a brief presentation on their history, we got a tour of one of their radio studios. We got to watch from both the control room and the studio as a morning talk show on Rai Radio 2. Emily Yurchinson (who was celebrating her 21st birthday) got to go on air with them. They were speaking rapid italian for the most part, but I did understand the words ‘Pittsburgh’ and ‘WPPJ’. Turns out they had done some research on us and knew about our radio station, so that was pretty cool.
They interviewed Emily about her own radio show and the trip and when the show ended we headed to the television studios. They showed us one virtual set studio that was entirely bright blue, basically a green screen set but not green. Then we went into one of the main news room studios, where they had cameras that looked very similar to ours at UView. In fact, unlike a lot of American stations that have turned to robotics to run cameras, Rai still employs camera men and floor directors.
They also showed us a really cool studio, set up to have a studio audience, in which they shoot a Sunday variety show and a sports talk show.
We made our long trek via subway and bus to our hotel. After freshening up, we headed out for a place some of the education group kids had recommended to us. They couldn’t remember the name so all we had to go off of was “you take a right, then another right, and it has blue neon lights”. Luckily we were able to find it pretty easily, ‘it’ being The Blender Bar. This was a great find for a cheap night out. You paid $11 for one cocktail and an endless buffet. It was awesome.
Tomorrow we have one more media visit and our last group dinner in Italy! Until then, ciao!